Synopsis / Summary / Plot
We begin with a flashback to the founding of the Illuminati, where Black Panther declined membership. He distrusted the idea of a group of superheroes deciding to run the world for its own good, but keeping it secret from everyone else. No-one else could be trusted. But what would happen if they found they couldn't even trust each other?
Then we have an ominous present-day scene where Mr Fantastic is counselling his audience (presumably the Illuminati) that nothing lasts forever.
Then we jump back a day for the bulk of the issue, which is basically a Black Panther story.
A group of 3 Wakandan youths have taken part in a ritual 'treasure hunt', and are the 1st to reach and decode the final element, which displays to them the map of an alien solar system. T'Challa greets them, and tells them that is their destination. The West has stopped exploring space, and the East is too slow. Wakanda will lead the way.
Suddenly a rhino charges from some sort of space-warp. Panther steps through it and finds himself in another version of the same scenery, but with another planet hanging in a pink sky. A woman, a man and some soldiers drop down from that planet, speaking Sumerian.
The 3 youths follow T'Challa through the warp. When the 4 talk to each other, the woman recognises the language as English. She tells them she is a Black Swan. and she is here to kill a world. But she didn't bring the other planet here, that was the Great Destroyer. This is all happening in what she calls an Incursion, bounded by the space-warp the rhino and the humans passed through.
Panther swears to stop her, and she tells her soldiers to kill the Wakandans. The soldiers fire, and Panther projects a force shield. But some of the energy gets through, killing Kimo and T'Dori. The 3rd youth N'Kono retaliates with blasts from his hands.
Panther grabs N'Kono and tries to teleport them both back to the Royal City. But the space-warp barrier stops them. They travel on foot instead, and the soldiers follow to stop them from walking out into the normal world. N'Kono gets killed next, and Panther decides to turn round and take the war back to the enemy.
Panther fights his way through the soldiers back to Black Swan and her companion whom she calls Manifold. He has materialised an object, which she takes from him and kills him. Panther attacks her just as she switches the device on. And the world in the sky explodes. And the sky returns to blue. (And the visitors vanish?)
Black Panther remembers a prophecy, and sends for the Illuminati. The next day they arrive:- Captain America and Tony Stark in an Avengers quinjet, Mr Fantastic in the Fantasticar, Black Bolt via Lockjaw the teleporting dog, Dr Strange magics his way in, and Sub-Mariner probably uses an Atlantean aero-sub.